Case Study A: The Peoples Temple And Jonestown

On November 18, 1978, over 900 people perished in the compound of the Peoples Temple in Guyana, South America. Many of the dead had apparently willingly drunk a poisoned fruit-punch at the command of the Rev. Jim Jones, the group’s leader. However, many of the dead were children convinced (or perhaps tricked or forced) to drink by their parents or other adults, and a few people appear to have been forced to drink at gunpoint (a handful died by gunshot). This remains one of modern history’s largest murder-suicide events, and religion was one of its central components.

Case Study B: The Ayodhya Mosque/temple Controversy

Ayodhya is today a city of some 50,000 people in the north-central Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The population of India today is roughly 80% Hindu and 14% Muslim. Many Hindus identify Ayodhya with a legendary city of the same name mentioned in the ancient Sanskrit Hindu epics the Ramayana and Mahabharata, in which Ayodhya is said to be the birthplace of the major Hindu deity Ram (or Rama/Ramachandra), who oversaw a fabled kingdom in the region.

Case Study C: Mountain Meadows Massacre

On September 11, 1857, a group of Mormons in Utah Territory massacred a wagon train of approximately 120 settlers, mostly from Arkansas and Missouri, sparing only 17 children. The circumstances of what became known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre are complicated, reflecting the early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and its trouble relations with the United States government and American society. Years of tense relations and episodes of open conflict had driven the Mormons ever westward until they found what they hoped to be a land in which to practice their faith in peace. The Mountain Meadows Massacre, however, showed that such peace would be hard to maintain.